Dewhurst-Cruz debate keeps up personal attacks

By Joe Holley :
July 23, 2012
: Updated: July 23, 2012 11:03pm

Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz, left, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst debate each other at the King Street Patriots event hall, Monday, July 23, 2012, in Houston. Dewhurst and Cruz lobbed barbs Monday night at the debate in Houston sponsored by the tea party organization.

Photo By AP

Dee Rowland, center, watches as Republican U.S. Senate candidates former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst debate each other at the King Street Patriots event hall, Monday, July 23, 2012, in Houston. The two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate have repeatedly torn into each other during a third debate as early voting began across Texas.

Photo By AP

Republican U.S. Senate candidate,Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, debates former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz, not shown, at the King Street Patriots event hall, Monday, July 23, 2012, in Houston. The two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate have repeatedly torn into each other during the third debate as early voting began across Texas.

Photo By AP

Republican U.S. Senate candidate, former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz, debates Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, not shown, at the King Street Patriots event hall, Monday, July 23, 2012, in Houston. The two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate have repeatedly torn into each other during the third debate as early voting began across Texas.

Photo By AP

Dee Rowland, center, watches as Republican U.S. Senate candidates former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst debate each other at the King Street Patriots event hall, Monday, July 23, 2012, in Houston. The two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate have repeatedly torn into each other during a third debate as early voting began across Texas.

Photo By AP

Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz, left, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst debate each other at the King Street Patriots event hall, Monday, July 23, 2012, in Houston. Dewhurst and Cruz lobbed barbs Monday night at the debate in Houston sponsored by the tea party organization.

Photo By AP

Senate candidates Ted Cruz, left, and David Dewhurst applaud each other during a live debate at the King Street Patriots event hall, Monday, July 23, 2012, in Houston.

HOUSTON — The politics of the personal trumped differences over policy in Monday's debate between U.S. Senate candidates Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who accused each other of lying about their respective records and waging a media war marked by untruth and insult.

Sponsored by the King Street Patriots, a Houston-based tea party organization, the hourlong debate before an audience of more than 300 offered mostly nuanced differences on the issues. The conversation grew heated when Cruz accused Dewhurst of running a dirty campaign.

“You know, I think you can tell a lot about a candidate by how they conduct their campaign,” Cruz said. “From day one my campaign has kept the focus on the issues. ... Unfortunately, the lieutenant governor has not reciprocated. He has spent over $10 million of his vast personal fortune flooding the airwaves with false, personal attack ads maligning my character.”

Cruz said his father, a Cuban immigrant, received a Dewhurst mailer this week that accused his opponent of being unpatriotic. “You know, one of the worst things you can say in politics is to malign someone's patriotism, and yet what the lieutenant governor sent to my father was a mailer that said, quote, ‘Ted Cruz worked against our country.'

“I have been running FOR the United States Senate,” Dewhurst responded, “telling people why I'm running and why they ought to vote for me. Since day one my opponent has been running against me. I talk about policy, I talk about solutions, I talk about answers.”

Although the audience had been told in advance not to applaud or audibly respond to the candidates' remarks, an audience member shouted “Not true” as Dewhurst spoke. Later in the debate, an audience member yelled “Liar.” The candidates ignored the outbursts.

On the issues, each candidate sought to portray himself as the most conservative.

Dewhurst said his first act as a U.S. senator would be to vote to repeal what he called Obamacare. “Throw it in the trash heap of history, bad history,” he said.

“I would keep not a single word of Obamacare,” Cruz said. “The Supreme Court's decision upholding it was a tragic day for liberty.”

Asked about illegal immigration, Dewhurst called for tripling the size of the Border Patrol.

Cruz agreed. “We need to do everything humanly possible to secure the border,” he said. “That means fences, that means walls, that means technology like helicopters and drones with infrared and that means boots on the ground, securing the border and tripling the U.S. Border Patrol.”

Asked about gun control in light of Friday's mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo., theater, both men expressed their fealty to gun rights.

“Sadly,” Cruz said, “when there is an evil act by a deranged individual, you see those with political agendas try to capitalize on it by violating our rights. I am a passionate believer in the Second Amendment.”

“There's no question that what happened in Aurora is terrible,” Dewhurst said, “but this deranged individual should not be a catalyst for changing our fundamental rights. I am a strong believer in the Second Amendment.”

Although the lieutenant governor received a polite reception, most of the audience seemed to favor Cruz, a tea party favorite who has pulled ahead in recent polls.

“I think he articulates very well what he believes,” said Brent Johnson, a Houston investment counselor. “As he said, we need someone who will go up there and fight.”

Olivia Pelech, a stay-at-home mom, said she supports Cruz because he will keep the nation from going the way of Europe, “where liberties are being stripped away every day. If we don't elect strong, principled leaders, we're going to suffer the same fate.”